Setts



Patented Aug. 23, 1898.

C. SMITH, Decd. c. c. READ & 0. SMITH, EXeclitors.

BALL BEARING. unman filed Dec. 23, 1698.) (No Model.)

CHARLES C. READ AND CHAUNCEY SMITH, OF. CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHU- SETTS, EXECUTORS OF CI-IAUNCEY SMITH, DECEASED.

BALL-BEARING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 609,463, dated August 23, 1898. Application filed December 23,1896. Seriallllb. 616,758. (No model.)

T0 at whom it may concern.-

Be it known that OHAUNOEY SMITH, deceased, late a citizen of the United States and a resident of the city of Cambridge, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, did during his lifetime invent a new and useful Improvement in Ball-Bearings, of which the following is a specification.

In certain classes of antifriction devices series of rolls are grouped to be carried together by means of a frame of annular shape which is carried with the rolls between the surfaces with which the rolls engage. An objection to this form of bearing incident to constructions heretofore used has been the liability of the rolls to be crushed and broken and the injury which results from the broken pieces of a' crushed rollbeing scattered among and the objections to this class of roller-bearings as heretofore made, and to this end the same is constructed as fully set forth hereinafter and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side view of the improved roller-bearing; Fig. 2, an edge view; Fig. 3, an inside view of one of the rings with the balls removed, and Fig. 4 a longitudinal section showing the device with its bearings.

In the drawings, a CL represent the rolls, which may be spherical, cylindrical, or in the form of disks and of any suitable number in the series, and A represents the supportingframe of the series.

The frame A is provided with a series of pockets at, each adapted to receive one of the rolls, and said frame is annular and just of sufficient thickness to permit each roll to extend beyond the outer and the inner faces of the frame only so far as will insure the contact of the roll with the bearing-faces u w,

upon which it must travel, without permitting the faces of the frame to come in contact with the said bearing-faces. This arrangement intirely in the ring 6.

Wholly in the ring 5.

sures the proper action of the antifrictionhearing; but if excessive pressure is brought upon any roll or if from anydefect in a roll it breaks or wears away or flattens under pressure there cannot possibly be any such extended movement as will crush the roll or flatten it to such an extent as to disorganize the bearing. If excessive pressure is brought on any or all of the rolls, such pressure will not cause the rolls to break, because the yielding of the rolls due to their elasticity will compress them wholly within their pockets and bring the pressure upon the frame, which is of sufficient strength to sustain without yielding any pressure likely to be encountered in practice.

To prevent the portions of a broken roll from wearing or injuring the other rolls, each receptacle or pocket or; is made of approximately the shape of the roll and closed except where the roll must project through the same to meet its bearing-faces, so that if a roll is broken it will be retained withinthe pocket, and no further injury will result.

It has proved to be advantageous in this class of bearings to arrange the rolls upon a helical line, so that they'will travel in separate circles, avoiding the grooving of the bearings resulting when allthe rolls follow each other upon the same circle. To secure this arrangement With a minimum of machinework and of expense, the frame-A is made of two rings 5 6, and the pockets are formed by milling or otherwise cutting recesses in the inner edges of the said rings at equal distances apart, increasing the depth of successive recesses in one ring and decreasing the depth of the opposite recesses of the other ring, with the result that the pockets are arranged upon ahelical line, and all of the pockets touch or extend across a common plane, each to a different degree. Thus, as shown in'Fig. 2, the central pocket w is formed en- The next pocket w is formed mainly in the ring 6, but slightly in the ring 5. The following pocket 00 extends farther into the ring 5 and less into the ring 6, and so on, while the last pocket 50 is formed These pockets, when the rollers are cylindrical, will be formed by drilling into the edges of the rings with or IOO dinary drills. \Vhen the rollers are spherical, they are formed With a milling-tool, and after the pockets are formed and the rollers placed therein the two sections 5 6 are brolilight together and suitably secured toget er.

Without limiting the invention to the precise construction and arrangement shown, what is claimed is- 1. The combination in a roller-bearing, of a series of rollers, and a frame consisting of two annular sections having coinciding pockets forming receptacles for the rollers, those of one section increasing successively in depth and those of the other decreasing successively in depth, and the deepest pocket of one section coinciding with the shallowest pocket of the opposing section, substantially as described.

2. The combination in a roller-bearing of a frame consisting of two annular sections having coinciding pockets forming receptacles for the rollers, the pockets of one section increasing successively in depth, and

those of the other section decreasing successively in depth and the deepest pocket of one section coinciding with the shallowest pocket of the opposing section, a series of rollers within the receptacle of the frame, the rollers projecting beyond the opposite faces of the frame only to such an extent that the thickness of the frame shall be greater than that diameter at which pressure will cause the rollers to rupture, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof We, the executors of the last will and testament of the late OHAUN- CEY SMITH, deceased, have signed this specification in the presence of witnesses.

CHARLES C. READ, OHAUNOEY SMITH, Executors of the estate of Chauncey Smith.

Witnesses to O. C. R.:

ETHEL BRIGHAM, SUSAN F. BRIGHAM. Witnesses to O. 8.:

HOWARD B. EMERY, CLARENCE A. PERKINS. 

